Infant Carseat

[KerriMc]

Hello ... I was reading all of the posts on carseats and was wondering about an infant carseat on the plane. We did buy a seat on the plane for our 6 mos old and have been debating about taking her in the infant carrier ... a Graco .. or in her rear facing carseat ... the Fisher Price Safe Embrace. I am thinking the infant seat will be easier for lugging through the airport as we will have our Graco stroller that we can push her in. We are flying Air Canada. Is it as easy to put an infant seat on the plane? Do we need the base like in the car? We are planning to take the base with us for car rental, as we find it easier to use. I am hoping we may be able to board ahead of time to figure this out. It was my idea to get her a seat as I read about others' experiences on here and was too nervous not to. I am hoping I am not making things complicated for us to travel!!

Any info would be really appreciated! Thank you!

Kerri

p.s. We have an almost 3 yr old flying as well. What are the toilets like on the plane? Are they loud as I remember from when I was a child? We are debating a pull up just for the convenience factor! Thanks!

 

[HappyMommy2]

Hi!

We used our Graco infant carseat (without the base, but I imagine you could use it with the base too; maybe someone can answer that) a few times on planes with no problems. It was definitely convenient to be able to snap it right onto the stroller for treks through the airport! It's been a while since we used the infant carseat, though, so hopefully someone can give you some more detailed tips on that.

As far as the airplane potty is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it too much unless your almost-3-year-old is very shy of "foreign" toilets. Yes, it's a bit noisy, but we flew a lot last year with our then-3-year-old and he LOVED the airplane potty and begged to use it at least once on every flight! The novelty of it was a big deal for him. Just warn your child that the water is blue--that was the only thing that threw my son off a bit! If your child doesn't mind wearing a Pull-Up, you might as well put one on him/her--it wouldn't hurt! Sometimes there are very long periods when the "fasten seatbelt" sign is on and you can't use the lavatory.

Have a great trip!

 

[Ellester]

I don't know how it works in Canada, but for US carriers you need to make sure your infant seat is certified by the FAA for airplane use. We had an Evenflo that was not. I'm not sure what the regulations are now, you may want to check with Air Canada ahead of time. Also make sure you bring the locking clip in case you need it.

As far as the potties, my 5 year old was facinated by them last trip. She was kind of freaked out that there wasn't a lot of water in the bowl and how it opened up when it flushed. It is also a very tight squeeze to fit two people in there, even if one is small!

Great job on getting the baby a seat. We always do, it is so much safer. During an emergency, if the baby doesn't have a seat you are supposed to PUT THEM ON THE FLOOR! Yeah, right!!!! In my opinion, it is well worth the cost for your baby's safety!

 

[disneymom3]

I would take the infacnt seat over the convertible rear facing if the child is within 2lbs of the weight limit. I don't know for sure, but I recall that when I flew with my at the time 8 month old who was way too big for an infant carrier/seat that they told me I couldn't rear face him in the airplane anyway. Plus, if baby is in the carseat that is a lot easier than lugging baby and carseat and manuevering about in the plane walkway!

Excellent choice to buy baby a seat by the way

 

[justhat]

Ellester, looks like your new baby is due just a little after mine is (we've got about 35 days left, 3/12)!

I had a question similar to this and was told by others on this board that you probably can't use the seat with the base because the plane seat buckle will end up in the middle of the base so you won't be able to latch the car seat onto it. I'm not exactly sure which Graco carrier you have, but we have a Snugride that was part of a travel system and ours has a sticker that says approved for aircraft use. Not sure if yours is the same or not, but hopefully that will help you.

 

[lovesdumbo]

I took my then 3 1/2 year old DD last October. She's a very shy girl and I worried about how she'd react to the characters. She LOVED them. BUT she was terrified of all the public restrooms. The bathrooms at the Baby Centers were better for her but eventually I just used a pull up on her. We went again this Jan and she did great in the public restrooms-a bit worried about the automatic flushing potties but I was really proud of her. We only had a 2 1/2 hour flight and she didn't need the bathroom on the flight down but did on the flight home. She took 1 look at the potty on the plane and freaked out. She didn't like the silver bowl or the lack of water or the blue....I ended up putting on a pullup and then immediately replacing it with a dry pullup for the rest of the flight home. After we were home a few days she said she liked the potty on the plane and she would use it next time.

I also have a 1 year old and 3 year old. My 1 year old was too big for her infant seat so we had 2 cars with us on the plane. I was really glad to have the car seat for my 3 year old. I'm sure he was safer and it kept him contained much better than just the seatbelt. He never asked to get out of his carseat-he knows he can't at home in the car.

 

[jel0511]

It is true that you can not use the base on the plane because the buckle of the seatbelt will hinder being able to "snap" the seat into the base. You will have to use the belt loops on the side to secure the infant car seat. Also, you should bring the infant seat if you wish for your child to be rear facing. Most, if not all convertible car seats are too large to be rear facing on an aircraft and you'd have to have it forward facing.